GOP promises a fight on birth control requirement

By Jennifer Steinhauer

New York Times

Posted:
02/08/2012 08:16:32 PM PST

Updated:
02/08/2012 10:16:45 PM PST

WASHINGTON -- Congressional Republicans, seizing on the kind of social issue that motivates and unifies their base, stepped forcefully Wednesday into the battle over an Obama administration rule requiring health insurance plans provided by Catholic universities and charities to offer free birth control to women, vowing to fight back with legislation to unravel the new policy.

"This is not a women's rights issue," said Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H. "This is a religious liberty issue."

Racing to defend the administration, five Democratic senators returned from their party's retreat south of the Capitol to hold a news conference to push back on that notion.

"We stand here ready to oppose any attack that is being launched against women's rights and women's health," said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York.

In California, state law already requires that Catholic universities and other organizations provide health care plans to their employees that offer free contraceptives.

Still, several of the Bay Area's Catholic organizations, including St. Mary's College in Moraga, have been speaking out against the federal law, saying it puts them in an "impossible" position of either violating the church's moral teachings by paying for contraception, or violating the church's social teachings by terminating those health care plans.

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"We urge others to write their representatives in Congress, asking them to rescind the contraceptive mandate," Elizabeth Nikels, vice president of communications for Daughters of Charity Health System, said in a statement from its Los Altos Hills headquarters. The organization runs O'Connor Hospital in San Jose and other local Catholic hospitals. "

Wednesday, House Speaker John Boehner said that he had asked the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which is at the center of the Republican fight against the health care law, to draft legislation blocking the rule. Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, will be questioned about the new rule at a hearing March 1, Republicans said. 

Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, R-Neb., said Wednesday that he would revive his Respect for Rights of Conscience bill, introduced in March.

"In recent days, Americans of every faith and political persuasion have mobilized in objection to a rule put forth by the Obama administration that constitutes an unambiguous attack on religious freedom in our country," Boehner, a practicing Catholic, said before a group of roughly 25 members in the chamber to give their own one-minute morning speeches.

"In imposing this requirement," he added, "the federal government is violating a First Amendment right that has stood for more than two centuries. And it is doing so in a manner that affects millions of Americans and harms some of our nation's most vital institutions."

A handful of Republican senators held a news conference on Capitol Hill on Wednesday to say that they, too, would seek legislation to push back on the rule, although it is unlikely that such a bill would have wide enough support to gain traction in that chamber.